SPOTTED: “CQ” and “Sex” In The Same Sentence

CQ may not be particularly sexy (that’s just not their bag, baby), but are they sexist? In what is easily our favorite story of the day, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (just kidding, Debs! We meant the unhyphenated Wasserman Schultz…), calls CQ sexist:

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is raising hell these days, and it concerns what she claims is Congressional Quarterly’s sexist policy of hyphenating names. For months, Wasserman Schultz has been angered over the fact that CQ repeatedly hyphenates her last name against her wishes.

When Wasserman Schultz first got married, she decided to use her maiden name, Wasserman, but added “Schultz,” unhyphenated, to share the same last name with her husband and, later on, their children.

“It’s my personal choice and personal name,” says Wasserman Schultz, who first had her spokesman address the matter with CQ reporters. “Look, this is not personal, but my name is spelled how I choose to spell it.”

When discussions with reporters didn’t work, the congresswoman’s spokeswoman went up the chain of command. Last week, the CQ executive board met and decided to drop the hyphen. But there is a catch. Since their stylebook doesn’t change until the year’s end, her name will not appear hyphen-less until January.